The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-01-26
REV. DR.. TALNAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S Sun.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: distribution of Rewards"

My family, who saw 1t with their
own ewes year before last, tell me
that in the Coliseum at Rome, where
prosecutors use to let out the halt-starved
lions to eat up Christians, there is now
planted the figure of ross. And rejoice
to know that the upri ight piece OF wc9d
nailed to a transverse piece has become the
symbol not more OF suffering than of VIC
tory. 1t is OF Christ the Conqueror that my
text speaks As O kingly warrior, having
subdued an empire, might divide the palaces.
and mansions, and cities, and valleys. and
mountains among his officers, 50 Christ IS
going to divide up all the earth, and all the
will have to take our share II we are strong
in faith and strong in our Christian loyalty,
for my text declares it: ''He shall divide the
spoil with the strong"
The CAPTURE of this round planet for Christ
Is net so much of lob as you might imagine,
when the church takes / its coat an rolls
I'D its sleeves for the work, as it will. There
are sixteen hundred millions of people now
in the world, and four hundred and fifty mil
lions are Christians. Subtract four hundred
and fifty millions who are Christians from
the sixteen hundred millions, and there are
eleven hundred and fifty millions left Di-
vide the eleven hundred and fifty millions
who are not Christian' by the four hundred
and fifty mi lions who are Christians and you
than three souls each brought by us into the
kingdom of God to haze the whole world re-
deemed. Certainly with the church rising
up to its full duty no Christian will oe willing
to bring less than three souls into the king
dom Of God. hope and pray. Almighty
God. that I may bring ten thousand; now
evangelists who have all ca ly brought 81, QUO
each for the kingdom Of God There
are 100000 people who:e one and only
and absorbing business in the world
is to save souls When you take
these things into consideration and that
the Christian will have to average the bring
ing of only three souls each into the Kingdom
of our Lord, all impossibility vanishes from
this omnipoteut crusade. Why, l know a
Sabbath-school teacher who has for many
years been engaged in training the young,
and she has had different ella SeS and they
averaged to a class, and they were all con-
yerted, and ) times are 80, as near as
I can calculate. So that she brought her
into the Kingdom of God and had J2 to
spare. My grandmother prayed her chill,
dlen into the Kingdom of Christ, and
her grandchildren, and | hope all M her
great grandchildren, Tor God remembers
a PRAYER seventy-five years old as though it
were only q minute old, and so she brought
her three into the Kingdom OF God and had
more than one handred to spare. Besides
that, through the telephone and the tele-
graph this whole world within few years
will be brought withil compass in ten min
utes Beside that, omnipotence, omnipresence
and omniscience are presiding in this matter
of the worlds be;ternent, and that take;
the question of the worlds salvation out
Of the impossibilities into the possibilities,
and then out of the possibilities into the
probabilities and then out Of the probabili-
ties into the Certainties. The building of the
Union Pa:ifc Railroad from ocean to o: can
- ofarp nd 70. l.iuo ha ha
of the earth with the Gospel, for the one en-
terprise depended upon tine human arm while
the other depends upon Almightin ss
Do really mean all the earth will surren-
der to Christ? Yes How about the unin-
viting portions! Will Greenland be evan
gelized! The possibility is that after few
mored hundred brave lives are dashed out
among the icebergs, that great refrigerator,
the Polar region, will be given up to the wal,
rus and bear, and that the inhabitant, will
come down by invitation into tolerable cli-
mates, or those climates may soften, and, as
it has been positively demonstrated that the
Arctic region was once blooming garden
and a fruitful field, those regions may change
climate and again be blooming garden and
a fruitful field. 1t is proved beyond contro'
versy by German and American scientists.
that the Arctic regions were the first portions
of this world inhabitable; the world hot
beyond human endurance, those regions
were of course the first to be coil
enough for human foot and human
lung. It was positively proved that the Arc
tic region was tropical climate. Professor
Heer, of Zurich. says the remains Of flowers
have been found in the Arctic, showing 1T
was like Mexico for climate, anil it is found
that the Arctic was the mother region from
which all the flowers descended. Professor
Wallace says the remains Of all styles of ami
NAL life are found In the Arctic, including
those animals that can live only in warm
climates. Now, that Arctic region which
has teen demonstrate | by fora, and fauna
and geological argument to have been as full
of vegetation and life rs our Florida, may be
turned back to its original bloom and glory,
or it will be shut up as a museum Of crystals
for curiosity seekers once IN a while to visit
But Arctic and Antarctic in some shape will
belong to the Redeemer's realm.
What about other unproiuctive or repul-
sive regions All the deser.s will be irri-
goted, the waters will be forced up to tho
great American desert between b ere and the
Pacific by machinery now known or yet to
be invented, and, as Great Salt Lake City
has no rain and could not raise an apple or
bushel Of wheat in hundred years without
artificial help, but is now through such means
one great garden, SO all the unproductive
parts Of all the n.incntS will be turned into
harvest field, AMI orc.ia' ds. A half dozen
De Less rs will furnish the world with all
the annals needed, and win change the course.
OF rive. S and open new lakes, aud the great
Sahara Drser5 will b, cat up into farms
with al astounding yield of bushels to the
acre. The marsh will he drained of its
waters aud cured of its malaria. saw the
other day what was for many years called
the British Swamp Of Ohio, its chief crop
chills and feverS but now, by the tiles put in
to the ground tocarry Of the surplus moisture
transformed into the richest aud healthiest OF
regions The God who wastes nothing, l
think. means that this world, from pole to
pole, ha; to come to perfection of foliage
aud fruitage. For that reason he keeps US
running thro Ugh Srace, Though SO many fires
are bla ing down in its tiniberS and SO many
mock terrors have threatened to dash it to
pieces. AS soon as the earth is completed
Christ will divide it up among the goo1.
The reason he does not divide it now is be-
cause it is MT done. A kind father will not
divide the apple among his children until the
apple is ripe. In tul:iliment Of the New
Test promise: The meek shall in.
herit the EARTH" and the promise of the Old
Testament: "He shall divide the spoils with
the strong the world will be apportioned to
those worthy to possess it.
1t is not so now. In this country. capable
of holding, feeding. clothing, and sheltering
twelve hundred million people, and where
We have only sixty million inhabitants we
have two millions who canuot get honest
work, and with their families an aggrega-
ton Of Eve millions that are on the verge of
starv: on. Something wrong, most certain
ly. In some way, there will be a new ap-
portionment Many of the millionaire es-
tates will crack to pieces on the dissipations
of grandchildren, and then dissolve into the
possession of the masses who now have an
insufficiency.
What, you say, will become Of the expen-
siYe and elaborate buildings now devoted to